


A Duty of Care

by heartbeatstumbles



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Mokuton, Unconventional Families, Unexpected Kindness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24330919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartbeatstumbles/pseuds/heartbeatstumbles
Summary: They look at each other for a little longer, but Tsunade is definitely waiting for Tenzo to say something.Tenzo nods, swallows hard, and gathers his courage. "I have your grandfather's powers, and I think I was injected with his defiled corpse. By your old teammate. Not to say that it was your fault.”Tsunade nods. “Yes. I was informed.”
Relationships: Tsunade & Yamato | Tenzou
Comments: 6
Kudos: 113
Collections: Exchange no Jutsu 2020





	A Duty of Care

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hisen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hisen/gifts).



He's dying, then he's not. 

His whole world is green, and he can feel his ribs knitting back together as he’s able to breathe again. 

Tenzo honestly thinks, staring Tsunade down at close range as she intently looks at him, that he might have been better off with the dying.  
  
Maybe he'd been too dramatic. Probably he would have recovered. He had two lungs, after all. He probably could have grown one back out of some Mokuton thing or...something. Healing, while greatly reducing his recovery time, wasn’t something he needed from the Slug Princess herself. 

He feels his breath returning to his lungs, and lets himself fall asleep.

After he’s healed, she summons him for a debrief. He knows those are routine, but he’s uncomfortable having to face her considering his whole bloodline theft thing. Still, mission reports can’t be that different from the previous Hokage. His team will know what to say. 

Except she summons him alone. 

He details the mission, which she probably knew already. But she looks at him the whole time, and this is what he always does, so he’ll keep talking about the mission. 

He thanks her for the healing. Her eyebrows crease when he brings up thanking her which is...weird? 

“No problem,” she says, “As a Senju, I know a few tricks to more efficient healing for our bloodline.”

She looks at Tenzo. 

Her impassive face betrays nothing of her intentions. Not for the first time, Tenzo finds himself completely at a loss for what to say.

The silence gets awkward. Then it gets weird. Tenzo searches desperately for something to say.  
  
  
"it's raining?" He says, his voice lilting into a question.  
  
  
Tsunade grins. “Yes, it is.”  
  
  
Oh good, Tenzo thinks. Weather. He loves talking about weather. He knows everything he's supposed to say and do with weather conversations.  
  
"I hope the rain passes soon," he says, feeling infinitely more cheerful. He’s good at these. It’s her turn now!  
  
"Yes," Tsunade agrees, and she looks confused, almost. But Tenzo doesn't think she's angry. Just uncertain.  
  
Tenzo isn’t sure if he’s supposed to say something else about the weather, but he doesn’t know what else to do.  
  
"It is also windy," Tenzo observes.  
  
Outside the window, he can hear the wind shrieking by the walls of the tower. Sometimes it feels like the structure is swaying. It’s kind of how he feels. He’s pretty sure weather conversations are supposed to do other things, but he’s not sure what.  
  
"It's a storm," Tsunade agrees.  
  
She doesn’t look like she’s going to kill him here. It would probably look bad. But Tenzou knows he’s probably supposed to die on his next mission. Maybe she’s deciding what kind of mission to send him on, or how she could keep the Mokuton in Konoha’s grasp while still being able to dispose of him. Tenzo figures she would probably have decided that before he was called in, though, and she’s still looking at him. Which means there’s something else, not that he knows enough about people to know what it is.  
  
No matter what he is, he is a shinobi first and foremost. He will take his orders without emotion and execute them to the best of his ability. Even if it means he’s about to be killed.

They look at each other for a little longer, but Tsunade is definitely waiting for Tenzo to say something. 

Tenzo nods, swallows hard, and gathers his courage. "I have your grandfather's powers, and I think I was injected with his defiled corpse. By your old teammate. Not to say that it was your fault.” 

Tsunade nods. “Yes. I was informed.” 

“I’m….sorry?” Tenzo can feel his heart beating out of his chest. What is she going to do to him now?

“Why are you sorry? If I recall correctly, this was the result of my wayward ex-teammate’s experimentation on you as a child.” 

Tenzo shifts. “I’ve had the Mokuton for as long as I can remember. I think this might be...bloodline theft. Is there something you wanted me to do? You could pull me from ANBU, I wouldn’t—”

Tsunade holds up her hand for him to stop talking and finally puts him out of his misery. “I apologize if my intentions were not clear. You are safe here, and I have no intention of ridding myself of one of my most accomplished shinobi simply because he had the unfortunate luck to come across my ex-teammate.”

Well. That takes care of pretty much everything. Now that Tenzo knows he isn’t about to be humiliatingly killed, all of the other possibilities seem to drift away. He almost catches himself smiling before he schools his face back into the ROOT-approved perfect neutral. 

Tsunade frowns. “My intentions today were to ask if you wanted to become an official part of the Senju clan. As clan head, I’d like to formally offer you a place in the clan, as well as my grandfather’s research notes on the Mokuton.”

Tenzo’s jaw actually drops open before he remembers to close it. “I’m sorry?”

“It took a while for me to get all the paperwork in order, which is why I haven’t mentioned this until now. I had to get it through the council, and I didn’t want to make you wait in…” Tsunade gestures at his almost catatonic form. “...in suspense.” She gestures to a stack of paperwork on her desk. “There is no pressure, but if you would like to officially become a Senju, this is the paperwork you will need to fill out. In it details healthcare, stipends, clan libraries…”

Tsunade’s still talking, but at this point in time Tenzo’s brain has completely ceased to function. Nothing like this has ever happened to him before. Even when Kakashi had pulled him out of ROOT and started forcing him to be human.... Nothing like this has ever happened to him.

Oh god. She’s looking at him. He has to say something. She’s the Hokage. Just something. Words come out of his mouth. 

“I....why? I’m not.... I’m not family. You don’t even know me.”

Tsunade smiles wryly. “Well, I did just get here. It’s been a busy time catching up on the mess the Sandaime left me. But if you want to, I would like to get to know you better, and also compare your technique to what I know of my grandfather’s. I’ve got a duty of care, but I’d also like to have some family around. The clan compound is open to you as well, whether or not you’d like to become an official member.”

Tenzo’s so shocked he’s almost forgotten how to breathe.


End file.
